Packing Packer Shutter Control for Tea Leaf Pulverization

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative Solutions
Generate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional packing methods for tea leaves, such as using an auger screw or measures with a chute pipe, result in pulverization and limit production rate due to time constraints in dropping tea leaves into bag bodies, typically allowing only 50 to 100 tea bags per minute.

Innovation Solution

A packing-packaging machine that uses a shutter to open and close the falling path of tea leaves into bag bodies, allowing multiple tea leaves to be present in the chute pipe, and controlling the timing of horizontal bonding formation to ensure efficient packing without pulverization, enabling production of 200 or more tea bags per minute.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If an auger screw is used to supply extractable material to the bag body, then the material can be continuously supplied, but the tea leaves are undesirably pulverized

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecontinuous supply capabilityVSAvoidpulverization of tea leaves
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSObject-affected harmful factors

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces the mechanical auger screw system with a vibration-based material supply system. A vibration table vibrates the extractable material container to cause material to flow onto the bag body, eliminating the mechanical contact and crushing action of the auger screw while maintaining continuous supply capability

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent employs vibration as the driving mechanism for material supply. The vibration table generates oscillatory motion that causes the extractable material to flow and distribute evenly onto the bag body, replacing the rotational mechanical action of the auger screw and preventing tea leaf pulverization

Inventive Principle:
Principle #18Mechanical vibration

2Manufacturing precision

If measures are used to measure and drop tea leaves through a chute pipe, then the packing precision can be controlled, but the production rate is limited to 50 to 100 bags per minute

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvepacking precisionVSAvoidproduction rate
Core Design Contradiction:
Manufacturing precisionVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements continuous material supply by eliminating the sequential measure-drop-bond cycle. The vibration table continuously feeds material onto the bag body during the bonding process, allowing overlapping operations where material for the next bag is supplied while the current bag is being sealed, thereby increasing production rate while maintaining precision

Inventive Principle:
Principle #20Continuity of useful action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary material positioning by having the vibration table supply and distribute the extractable material onto the bag body before the horizontal bonding process begins. This ensures the material is properly positioned and settled in advance, maintaining packing precision while enabling the bonding unit to operate continuously without waiting for material delivery

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Applied Scientific Principles

This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.

Function Achieved in This Case

The solution eliminates pulverization and significantly increases the packing rate by allowing multiple tea leaves to be dropped simultaneously and forming horizontal bonds before the previous batch is fully packed, resulting in a higher production capacity.

Implementation Method 1

a shutter (133) for opening and closing a falling path of the predetermined amount of object to be packaged into the bag body

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectGravity: Gravitation

Implementation Method 2

a horizontal bonding unit (76) for forming bonding at predetermined intervals on a tubular body (5b) formed from a packaging sheet to thereby form a bag body

Methodology Applied
Scientific EffectWelding: Welding

Data Source

PatentEP2377761B1Filling packer
Publication Date: 2015.04.01 OHKI
  • EP2377761B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP2377761B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP2377761B1 patent drawingFigure 3A

AI summary

A packing-packaging machine 70 includes: sheet feeding means (feeding rollers 74) for running a tubular body formed from an extraction bag sheet 5; a horizontal bonding unit 76 for forming a bag body by forming horizontal bonding on the tubular body at predetermined intervals; and an object dispensing unit 100 for dispensing an object 85 to be packaged to the bag body during a repetition of the formation of the horizontal bonding. The object dispensing unit 100 includes a shutter (a measure shutter 103) for opening and closing a falling path of a predetermined amount of the object 85 into the bag body. The shutter is opened and closed such that the predetermined amount of the object 85 and another predetermined amount of the object 85 fall with a spacing therebetween, and that before the horizontal bonding is formed on the bag body packed with the predetermined amount of the object which has been dropped during opening-closing operation of the shutter, the other predetermined amount of the object for a next bag body starts falling. With the packing-packaging machine 70, the rate of packing-packaging is drastically improved.